North Sailing and Whale Museum out and about

Earlier this week majority of North Sailing’s and Whale Museum’s staff ventured out on a truly amazing evening tour on Skjalfandi Bay. We sailed on Haukur, North Sailing’s Schooner, and started the trip with a stop in Puffin Island. Everyone went ashore exploring the island which is a home of 200.000 puffins. When back onboard…

Historic Sailing to Nattfaravíkur

The first official “Swedish Days” festival took place in Husavik last week and judging by peoples reaction, this festival is here to stay and will be continued annually around the Mid-Summer Festival (24th June). One of the highlights of the festival was a historic cruse to Nattfaravikur. North Sailing and Restaurant Salka invited the inhabitants…

Blue Whale at the Husavik Whale Festival

The annual Whale Festival in Husavik was held last weekend. A lot was happening all over town, and on the Friday the staff from the Museum made a Blue Whale from sand on the beach in Husavik. The whale was measured 33 meters and weighed around 190 tons, which equals to the largest of Blue…

“Swedish Days” in Husavik

This week we’re celebrating the first “Swedish Days” festival in Husavik. Husavik has close links to Sweden, the most important one being a Swede called Garðar Svavarsson and his slave Náttfari, where the first Nordic people to discover Iceland. Gardar settled in Husavik and lived here over the winter. When departing back to Sweden he…

Busy – Busy – Busy

Never before has North Sailing staff been as busy as now. Apart from the normal duties of captains, guides, engineers, and office staff we’re now building a 120 m2 service building and renovating an old historic house. North Sailing now employs around 30 people, but including the builders, electricians & plumbers working on the construction…

Incentive group exploring Eyjafjordur

Last week North Sailing’s crew, onboard Bjossi Sor, ventured on a trip to the town of Dalvik in Eyjafjordur bay. There they picked up 50 passengers travelling with an incentive group organized by an Austrian insurance company. They sailed on the beautiful bay with experienced and knowledgeable guides which spotted two humpback whales. The whales…

Sailing boats in Husavik harbour

Husavik is becoming a popular destination for sailing boats from all over the world. Today two of them are moored in the harbour with many more expected this season. KK The picture shows the two sailing boats with North Sailing’s schooner, Haukur in the background.

The bay is full of life

After a cold start of the season it has now started warming up and the bay seems to be livelier by the day. In so cases humpbacks, minke whales, harbour porpoise and dolphins have been spotted on the same trip. Yesterday a humpback breached just by the side of one of North Sailing’s boats offering…

German honeymooners aboard Knorrinn

Earlier this week North Sailing staff had the pleasure of having onboard, a honeymoon couple from Germany. Despite the cold northerly winds, they enjoyed the trip. On their return Nils, one of our guides, handed them a small gift as a souvenir from their visit to Husavik. We wish them all the best in the…

Educational trip for a local school

Earlier this week a group of 60 purples and teachers from Reykjahlidarskoli in the Lake Myvatn region ventured out on Nattfari, North Sailing´s largest boat. The trip was a success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. They then visited the renowned Whale Museum which is always popular with the younger generation. KK

First Humpback whale of the season

Today, 26 passengers of Knorrinn were lucky enough to see the first humpback whale of the season. Crew of Knorrinn in this trip were Hrolfur Thorhallsson, now steering a Whale watching boat on Skjálfandi Bay for his 8th consecutive season, and Hilda Kristjánsdóttir, guide. HH A humpback whale near m/b Knörrinn Captain Hrólfur Thorhallsson

Icelandair staff from London on summer´s first trip.

Yesterday, North Sailing had the pleasure of hosting a group of employees from the Icelandair office in London. They were here to study North Sailing´s operation and see what Húsavík has to offer. Although the official whale watching season hasn´t started yet, nobody could resist sailing out to the beautiful bay as conditions were great,…

North Sailing survey shows customer´s satisfaction

Last summer a survey was conducted among North Sailing´s passengers, on their views and feelings regarding the company´s service standards and issues, such as whaling. Elsa M. Jakobsdottir, studying sociology at the University of Iceland, lead the project in cooperation with the Husavik Academic Centre. The survey expressed positive and encouraging results for North Sailing…

Luxury apartments in historic house

North Sailing buys and restores a historic house in Husavik´s centre. Recently North Sailing bought a historic building in the centre of Husavik, and plans to convert it into flats. Work has already started on the house and is scheduled to finish in early June. The building was previously the home of a corner shop…

ICELANDIC MYTHS AND TALES OF WHALES

The text below is borrowed from www.icewhale.is, the website of the Whale Museum in Husavik. In Old Icelandic Sagas, around seventeen stories describe the relationship between humans and whales. Though, none of these stories portray whaling or processing of the meat. In former times, with the fishing boats being much smaller, it is not hard…